St. Matthew 5:1-12
Dearly beloved,
Jesus first places Himself as Teacher with the Beatitudes in
St. Matthew’s gospel. St. Matthew begins his gospel with the genealogy and
the birth narrative. We are introduced to John the Baptist, then follows
the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan followed by His temptation in the
wilderness by Satan. The first actual teaching of Jesus begins with our
gospel for today, which suggests that the words are absolutely critical to
everything that follows in the gospel.
The situation is such that Jesus sees a great multitude of
people and goes up a mountain to find some seclusion. His disciples
followed. They would no doubt have been a small group at this early stage
in the ministry. Perhaps it was the “Twelve.” We are told that once Jesus
was seated to teach He opened His mouth and taught them. The opening of the
mouth is the buzz phrase suggesting that the Messianic teaching is
beginning. Jesus has something important to say.
Time does not allow us to ponder in detail each verse of the
Beatitudes, but each verse speaks on the fruits and good works of a
Christian. Jesus is teaching the disciples what life is going to be like
for them in the future. It is not what they expect as they begin this
sojourn with Jesus. To be poor in spirit, to mourn, to be meek, to be pure
in heart, to be a peacemaker, to be merciful, to be persecuted….these are
not favorable characteristics from the world’s standpoint. The world looks
at these qualities and sees them to be weaknesses.
But Jesus is saying that these are blessed. What does it
mean to be these things? Let’s look at what it means to be poor in
spirit. When
we think about holiness, we as Christians strive to live holy lives. There
would be something wrong with us if we didn’t desire this. Actually, we
would be wicked if we did not desire to be holy. So, a Christian goes forth
studying the Holy Scriptures, going to the Divine Service to hear preaching
and to receive the blessed sacrament.
Subsequently, we go forth living a life of Christian service
and mission. We get up every morning and we pray to God asking for
forgiveness for our sins, then we go about our task seeking where we may do
mission work, serve in love, etc. But as the day progresses we drive down
the road and we curse a driver in another car. We get to work and we see
those who have angered us and we hurl insults at them in our hearts,
despising their very existence.
Then, the day progresses and rather than finding the good in
situations and in others, we find faults, we find problems and are angered,
yet again. Then we see someone of the opposite sex and we are enticed in
lust. Days end comes and we return home, tired from the day. Rather than
spending time with spouse or children or in the reading of Holy Scripture,
we decide to turn off our brains and hearts as we watch TV. The day did not
go the way we had hoped when we prayed in the morning.
Instead of leading lives of holiness, we found ourselves
troubled by the world and the sin that dwells within us. As the day comes
to a close, we get on our knees and pray to the Triune God and we recollect
on our day. We realize that what is most visible in our mind is our sin. We
ask Jesus Christ to forgive us of all the sins that we have committed. We
ask for forgiveness for our failure as a Christian. We ask for Jesus to
give us the strength to serve Him faithfully the next day.
Through the course of your day you realized something very
important as you took your life and your sins to Jesus in prayer. You
realized that you are poor in spirit. Jesus is saying that getting to this
point in one’s life as a Christian is a blessing. The reason? You have
come to realize that your works are as filthy rags. It is Jesus Christ
alone who sustains you. Being poor in spirit means that you do not look to
yourself for holiness or for the integrity of Christian living. You look to
Jesus and the Holy Spirit and the beloved heavenly Father to be your sole
source of holiness.
The rest of the Beatitudes follow in the same vein. Mourning,
being meek, hungering and thirsting for righteousness, being merciful, being
pure in heart, being a peacemaker, and being persecuted for righteousness’
sake all flow from this same understanding. You learn through the active
practice of confession and absolution in your own life that this is a broken
world and you are a part of it. Your only way of escape from it is Jesus
Christ. And while you are freed from the disastrous eternal consequences of
sin, you must remain in this world and continue on.
The Beatitudes center around the realization of sin and its
consequences, coupled with remaining in this world and having to struggle
and confess the Nicene faith in the midst of a dying world. It is not
incidental nor coincidental that the Beatitudes follow with Jesus telling
the disciples that they are, both, the salt of the earth and the light of
the world. Those disciples who sat at Jesus feet on the mountain that day
later went forth and became the first apostles, beacons of light to a dark
world. They preached the gospel and brought life to that which was dying.
The beacon of light brought forth by the apostles is still beaming today.
It is the same with you. If you are honest with yourself,
then you will admit that you struggle with holy living as I have described.
This is not cause for giving up or despairing, however. Jesus Christ died
for your sins on the cross and He rose triumphant over the grave. This
means that you have been freed from the eternal death that this fallen world
affords.
Then, as you go forth in your day and the next week of your
life, you realize that Jesus does command us to live holy lives, but it
comes by His power not yours. So, you commend your whole life to God. You
ask for His strength in exchange for your weaknesses. You ask for His love
in exchange for your anger and hate. Jesus promises to bless you. Jesus
says one chapter later, “Seek first the kingdom and all righteousness, and
all these things shall be added to you.”
In other words, Jesus Christ is your all in all. Jesus
demonstrates that He is your teacher. More than that, Jesus is your Savior.
He loves you and pours that love into your hearts and into your lives. All
things that we seek concerning the kingdom must come from Jesus and He is
willing to give us the spiritual blessings associated with His cross. Rest
in Jesus. Your sins are forgiven. You are holy. You are baptized with
Water and the Word. You are loved. You belong to Jesus. Amen.
--
Rev. Chad Kendall
www.frchadius.blogspot.com
Trinity Lutheran Church
Lowell, Indiana
www.trinitylowell.org
